Marriage of Inconvenience
by scubaluver
Summary: Toby and CJ have a secret. Fixed formatting issues.
1. The Fundraiser

TITLE: The Fundraiser

AUTHOR: Brandy B

SUMMARY: After the Andrea's fundraiser Toby goes home to CJ

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them, I would have money to go out and do something  
instead of sitting at my computer and playing with them :) Not making any  
money, but don't sue, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

ARCHIVE: If you tell me where.

FEEDBACK: Always appreciated, never required

--

Toby kicked off his shoes and loosened his bow tie as soon as he walked into his apartment. "Why do those things always take so long?" He was about to launch into a tirade about the rubber chicken that never failed to be inedible at fundraising dinners, when he noticed that his intended audience was sleeping in the middle of the bed.

"Wonder where you expect me to sleep," he muttered under his breath as he began unbuttoning his tuxedo shirt. Toby sat down on the corner of the bed and gently traced the curves of CJ's face. "God you are beautiful," he whispered.

The corners of CJ's face turned up slightly as she began to stir. "How was it, tonight?" She asked softly.

Bringing his mouth down to capture hers in a kiss, Toby had no intention of answering the question, but C.J. pulled away. "Well?"

Toby sighed, "the chicken was overdone."

"It always is." Knowing how he felt about the food at fundraisers CJ grinned, a little. "I told you to eat before you left."

"And one day I am going to learn to listen to you." Toby smirked, "one day."

"Which is Zeigler for 'no time in the near future'." CJ rolled her eyes moved closer to him. "How was Representative Wyatt?"

"Andy was fine; she loves that sort of thing, hobnobbing for her cause. She should have been a lobbyist."

"I am sure you had a good time." The coldness in CJ's voice was anything but subtle.

"CJ…" Toby sighed, "don't."

"She still has a thing for you." CJ pouted.

"No, she doesn't. She is practically engaged to that… that Dodger…" Toby shuddered at the thought.

"Everybody thinks you still have a thing for her," CJ winced.

"What do you think?" Toby asked softly as he felt her began to stroke his left hand.

"They think this is hers." CJ mumbled as her fingers ran over his wedding ring.

Toby smirked. "You know the truth, CJ. You were there when I got it, remember? You were the beautiful redhead standing across from me at the alter?"

CJ bit her lip in an effort to hide her smile. "You think I would forget our wedding? Never."

"So what is this about, tonight? All these questions about Andy? You, me and an Atlantic City Elvis impersonator may be the only people who know we are married, but…"

"She was flirting with you," CJ pouted.

"Yeah? When?" Toby grinned. Honestly, he never knew when women were flirting with him. He flirted naturally, it was unconscious he couldn't stop flirting if he tried, and he couldn't see flirting with a radar detector.

"You'll look good in your tux…" CJ changed her voice to mock Toby's ex wife.

"What was she going to say, CJ? She was trying to get something from me."

"That is the point, Toby, you are always trying to get something from one another, and you do it by flirting."

Toby rolled his eyes dramatically. "Are you jealous of her?"

"Well… When… Well…" How could he expect her not to be jealous when he bought Andrea breakfast, she brought him pie, she complimented him on his clothes, she invited him places? "She is still a part of your life, Toby. NOBODY knows we are married, we have two separate apartments, on totally different sides of the city, we work one hundred hours a week, and never do anything at the office… I can't walk into your office and kiss you, you can't rub my shoulders when I have a bad day… we can't do anything because nobody can know we are married…"

"CJ, you knew that…"

"When we were married, of course I did…" she sighed. "I just…"

"Honey…" Toby stopped, they never called one another pet names, if they started at home they would slip and do it at the office. "CJ, we agreed when we were married, I am your boss. It wouldn't look right; hell, it isn't right… I…"

"Wait, are you saying marrying me was a mistake?" Anger and tears flashed in her eyes. "Is that what you think?"

"I never, CJ, I never said that," Toby stumbled to find the right words. "Marrying you was the second best thing I did that day."

CJ choked back a laugh; she was still far too angry to admit Toby was funny. "Remind me next time I get married not to do it on Inauguration Day."

Toby shrugged. "You would have preferred attending one of those loud, crowded, inaugural balls?"

CJ shrugged. "We went to one of those, remember?"

Toby kissed her softly as he let his mind wander back to that night. Everybody had been amazingly giddy for weeks after the election, and it all culminated in that event. The campaign staff had been invited to parties all over the city, but agreed to only make appearances at one or two. They had run the country the next day, after-all.

The champagne was good and free. CJ, Toby, Josh and Sam triumphantly told campaign war stories to anybody who would listen, but the President left to put in an appearance somewhere else, Josh and Sam followed. Suddenly, CJ and Toby were all alone, in a room full of people. Toby couldn't quite remember how they started dancing, it was all a hazy blur of adrenalin, but when they kissed…

"Leaving was the best thing we ever did," she whispered between increasingly hungry kisses. Three years ago kissing had been an extraordinarily bad idea, there was press all around. Deciding it was best to cool off, they left the ball to take a walk in the brisk January weather. They walked all the way back to her apartment, hand in hand… that wasn't at all dangerous. When he suggested a drive, she jumped at the opportunity. It was better than staying at her place, if they stayed near a bed they would undoubtedly sleep together, that COULDN'T happen…

"It was the most impetuous thing we ever did," he reminded her. "God, how did we decide to work off energy by playing black jack?"

"Atlantic City, that was one hell of a drive," she remembered out loud, "and by the time we got there, I was so ready to give my life to you…"

"And we did, but if anybody found out, CJ… I love you, I am not going off with Andrea Wyatt or anybody else. I meant every word I said to you that night, but sometimes I have to play the game with her." Sadness flashed over his eyes for a second, "like sometimes you have to play it with Danny. At least, I never pull Andrea into corners for long steamy kisses."

CJ blushed. "He was on to us, Toby. I had to prove I was single. It was the only way, short of seeing somebody publicly. We don't have enough free time to date other people."

He smiled and kissed her passionately. "I don't stop you from flirting with Danny, because I trust you…"

CJ nodded as she undid his belt, "I know, I love you."


	2. Uninvited

Title: Uninvited

Author: Brandy B.

Summary:After SGTE;SGTJ, CJ and Toby discuss his remarks… and Toby gets a date?

Disclaimer: If I owned them, I would have money to go out and do something instead of playing with them. I'm not making any money off of them… and if you sued me, you wouldn't get much.

Archive. If you tell me where.

Feedback: Always appreciated, never required.

-

"Why is it that you boys never invite me when you go out drinking?" CJ asked as soon as she heard her husband walk into the house.

"Hi, how are you? How was your day?" Toy sighed. "A guy has to beg to get a decent greeting around here?" Toby pulled off his tie and placed the contents of his pockets on the nightstand.

CJ groaned; he always left a pile of change. She was amassing a small fortune in quarters, nickels and dimes; but everything always looked so messy. "If you had invited me drinking, I would know the answers to those questions, already," she shrugged.

"So, I have missed out on small talk time?"

"That, my friend, you have," CJ nodded. "Because, you never invite me drinking.

"We invite you all the time," Toby protested.

"When?" CJ countered.

"Weren't you there the night Zoe was almost attacked?"

"You weren't; besides I invited myself."

The corners of Toby's mouth rose in the beginnings of a mischievous smirk, "Well, you drink those prissy drinks; real men drink beer, or scotch.

CJ rolled her eyes, "God, Toby, we've been married for two years now. I hope like Hell you've noticed I'm not a man!"

Toby laughed, crawled into bed, and planted a long, hard kiss on her lips, "I noticed," he whispered huskily.

"So, you mentioned during the staff meeting this morning," CJ grinned. When they first married they enacted an absurd no flirting policy. However, that quickly fell by the wayside. They were both flirtatious by nature and trying not to flirt had been a constant struggle, which often caused problems at home. For the most part, reversing that policy had done wonders to improve their lives, "Just one thing, though." CJ sighed.

Toby rolled onto his side to get a better view of his wife, "What is it?" He could tell by the way that she sounded that he was nearing the doghouse.

"Your tone," she said matter-of-factly.

"My tone?" Toby raised an eyebrow.

"Your tone," she nodded.

"What about my tone?"

"Well, you sounded like you meant it."

"I did!" he announced emphatically.

"Really?" she brightened involuntarily.

Toby shot her a look, "You had doubts?"

"Well…" CJ' brow wrinkled in thought, "I have this unusually large neck…" She mumbled.

Toby smirked, "I might have to… examine… that…" He muttered each word between kisses.

--

"She called," Josh announced gleefully as the mornings staff meeting drew to a close.

"A woman called you?" Was she desperate?" CJ smirked as she gathered her notes.

Josh shot CJ a disapproving look, "No, she called Toby."

"Who called me?"

"Rhonda!" a dimpled smile played across Josh's face.

"Rhonda the cop? Officer Sachs?"

"In trouble with the law, Toby?" CJ playfully asked. "Let me guess, you felt your youth slipping away at the WTO rally, so you decided to cause some trouble?"

Toby ignored CJ and turned to Josh, "Why were you answering my phone?"

"I wasn't. She called me."

A puzzled expression came over Toby's features, sometimes… no… often, talking with Josh gave him a headache, "Why did she call you?"

"I am your wingman."

"You resigned," Toby reminded Josh gruffly.

"That was yesterday, today I unresigned."

Toby rolled his eyes. "Is that a word? I don't think it is."

Josh grinned, "Which is why they pay you the big bucks for speech writing."

"Big bucks? When do those start? Because, I sure as hell haven't seen them."

Josh smirked, none of them were in this for the money, "There are other perks…"

"Such as?"

"Having me as your wingman!"

"You resigned."

"I un…" Josh paused when he caught Toby's murderous glance, "I withdrew my resignation."

"When was that?"

"This morning, when Rhonda called."

"And she got your number, how?"

"I gave it to her."

"Because?"

"Because that, my friend, is what wingmen do."

"Wait! What gave you the impression, we were friends?" Toby grinned and turned the corner to get to his office.

Josh started to follow Toby but was cut off by CJ. "My office."

"But…"

"But?" CJ asked while walking.

"I was talking to Toby."

"About anything important, like Prop 987 and its chances of passing, about the situation in Nigeria, about anything remotely related to our jobs… ya' know, running the country."

"We…Well…."

"That is what I thought…"

--

"Who is Rhonda?" CJ asked as soon as the door to Toby's office closed.

"The Subject of a Beatles song?" Toby gave his best look of feigned innocence.

"Tobias!" CJ shot a warning look in her husband's direction.

"Claudia?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Who is Rhonda?"

"A member of the DCPD, didn't we do this part already?"

"Why'd she call you?"

"She didn't call me, she called Josh… and I am POSITIVE we did this part already."

"Toby!"

"CJ." Toby mirrored his wife's expression almost identically.

"Why is a cop calling Josh, for you?" CJ asked very slowly in an attempt to keep her temper in check.

"He wanted to set us up," Toby's tone indicated, he saw nothing at all unusual in this practice.

"Toby!"

"CJ!"

"We're…" they never said the word married in the office, "You shouldn't be looking for dates."

"Josh, ya' know Hardy Boy #1, he gave Rhonda his number; I didn't."

"But…" CJ sighed. She knew Toby couldn't do anything about it; still it didn't make her happy.

"CJ?" Toby raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Yeah?" she softened slightly.

"Get back to work," Toby nodded to the clock which indicated that she was less than ten minutes away from her afternoon briefing.

"Your warmth, it's overwhelming," CJ sighed, but picked up the legal pad on the desk in front of her. "So, what's the spin on Senator Blake's remark from this morning?"

--

"You know what you need, CJ?" Josh asked from directly outside the pressroom.

"A little breathing room?" Josh had pounced on her the second she had opened the door.

"Nope, try again."

"An assistant who knows how to spell Senator?" CJ rolled her eyes. "It is OR, Carol."

"Check!" CJ's assistant made a note on the legal pad she was carrying.

"That would be heartening if we didn't have this conversation weekly," CJ sighed as she stepped into her office.

"You haven't answered my question," Josh pointed out.

"As a matter of fact I have, twice…"

"So you give up?"

"If that'll make you leave faster…"

"One day you will appreciate all I do for you, CJ."

CJ shot Josh an unnerving look; but Josh continued on undaunted, "You need a wingman."

"A wingman?" CJ grinned, "Who do you propose?"

"Me, of course. I got Toby a date. If I could get him a date…"

CJ reddened and bit her tongue to keep from jumping to her husband's defense, "And when was the last time you got yourself a date?"

"Um…" Josh stuttered, "Ummm…."

CJ grinned, "Yeah."

"Well, I work a lot." Josh tried to defend his miserable social life.

"We all do." CJ nodded.

"Yeah," Josh sighed, "Still…"

"You know what you need, Joshua?" CJ grinned, "A wingman."

"Very funny…"

"Yes, I am… thanks for noticing…" CJ turned to her computer. "Now get out of here, I have work to do."

CJ was still hard at work, planning potential questions and answers for the next presidential press event, when Toby knocked once then walked in. "Hey," he said softly as he entered.

"Hey yourself," CJ looked up, finally.

"Prop 987 is going to pass."

CJ raised an eyebrow, "You were three votes down this morning."

Toby nodded, "Sam and I spent most of the day on the Hill."

CJ grinned, "I thought we only sent you, when we were trying to lose votes."

Toby rolled his eyes, "We are going out to celebrate."

"John in the mail room and Dave in the photo lab couldn't make it, so you thought of me… the perennial last to be invited?"

Toby smirked, "If you don't want to come…"

"I want to come!" CJ rose slightly as if somehow that would solidify her point.

"Great, I'm going to go invite Josh."

"You haven't invited Josh?" CJ gleamed.

"Not yet."

"What about Rhonda?"

Toby raised an eyebrow, "What about her?"

"You should invite her," CJ grinned.

"Are you feeling okay? You want me to go on a date?"

"No, not for you…" CJ smirked.

"Pardon?"

"For Josh; he is looking for a wingman."

Toby laughed, "Ill see you at Poppa Docs."

"I'm looking forward to it." CJ nodded.

"I'm looking forward to afterwards," Toby flashed his most seductive smile and left the office in search of Josh.


	3. One Fight, Another

Title: After One, Another

Author: Brandy B

Summary: After 17 People Toby picks up Sam and Ainsley's fight, and then goes home to begin another.

Disclaimer: Nobody here belongs to me, if they did, I'd be rich. I'm not, so feel free to sue me, all you'd get is this computer.

Archive: If you tell me where.

Feedback: Never required, I wrote this story, didn't I? However, always appreciated.

--

CJ climbed into bed alone, again. Seven days, she sighed, it had been seven days since she and her husband had spent the night together.

"They forgot to bring the funny," Josh explained for the 19th time as they tried to punch up the speech for the Correspondents Dinner.

The Correspondents Dinner is supposed to be funny," Toby sighed.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

"And the speech is tomorrow?"

"Today," Sam sighed as he looked at his watch. Midnight had long since come and gone.

"Yeah," Toby sighed as he read the speech. "Tell me you have better jokes than these?"

The group began tossing more quips at him.

Toby tried to separate the good from the bad. However, his mind kept going back to the president and everything he had learned over the course of the past few hours.

"We still don't have it," Josh sighed.

"Well, I've had it," Donna insisted as she stood up. "Use all the dead audience lines you need, I'm going home."

Toby winced, home, he vaguely remembered what home looked like.

"I'll drive you," Josh offered. He could no longer see straight and he wanted to learn more about Donna's accident, anyway.

Donna started to protest, but stopped, "I'll drive you." As weary as Josh's eyes looked, She didn't trust him to drive.

"Well, I'm staying," Sam protested harshly, "I'm not a quitter."

"You quit pretty easily a couple of hours ago." Josh smirked as he and Donna left the room.

Sam stammered. "I…it…I…"

Toby smirked, "Get your ass kicked, again? By a girl?"

"I resent that!" Ainsley protested.

"You resent kicking Sam's ass?" Toby questioned.

"No, the implication that it should be harder for me to kick his ass, or that he should be more embarrassed by it because I am a woman."

Toby grinned, "What was the fight about?"

"She is anti-ERA."

"Because?"

"She's a fascist."

"The Fourteenth Amendment," Ainsley corrected proudly as she recalled how thoroughly she had trounced Sam, "The 14th Amendment gives me equal protection. It makes all other amendments and laws about equality redundant."

A look of disbelief washed over Toby's face, "You couldn't defeat that argument?"

I had moved on to other things in my head," Sam defended himself meekly.

"Uh hu," Toby rolled his eyes, "Tell me, Ainsley, does the 14th Amendment keep you warm at night? 'Cause it's hard to pay the heating bill on 75 cents to the dollar?"

"There have been laws passed to correct that problem," Ainsley countered.

"You still make a quarter less than a man in the same position," Toby smirked, "You've come a long way, baby"

Ainsley rolled her eyes at the comment, "Women get paid maternity leave; they get paid to take time off."

"Usually, they are getting paid a small portion of their salary for a short period of time, a time period which is far less than any other industrialized country in the world. And this is their reward for repopulating the earth, for bringing the next generation of leaders into the world."

"It is their choice."

"Not if the leaders of your party have anything to say about it!"

"That was my argument," Sam interjected proudly.

"Whatever," Toby groused.

"All I'm saying is that we're talking about an issue of enforcement. All of this should be made redundant by the 14th Amendment."

"With that argument, we should repeal the voting rights act of 1965, as well as the 20th Amendment, and overturn Brown V Board of Education. Every one of those, and more just like them, helped to ensure equal rights after the passage of the 14th.

"In a more perfect world those…."

Toby interrupted, "In a more perfect world all children would have health insurance, all pharmaceuticals would be priced to move, the Hippocratic oath would make insurance companies refusal to pay inconsequential; a doctor's pledge to do no harm would overcome his desire to be paid. In a perfect world we'd all sing Imagine as the national anthem, and I'd have a full head of hair.

"However, this world isn't perfect, and passing legislation to ensure the rights of women is in no way redundant." Toby stopped his ranting, looked at Sam and Ainsley for a beat, and continued, "The Correspondents Dinner isn't for another 16 hours. I'm going home, I'm going to bed, and I'll bring the funny bright and early tomorrow. We'll do a rewrite then, Goodnight."

"Imagine as the national anthem?" CJ mumbled when Toby crawled into bed.

"Supersonic hearing?" Toby raised an eyebrow.

"Sam called me; he couldn't stop laughing," CJ shrugged.

"It's easier to sing than the current national anthem."

CJ fought hard to hold back a smirk, "Awfully presumptive of you to assume you could just slide into bed."

"You've never complained before."

"You've never ignored me for six days before, Toby. You haven't been home in a week. Thursday you had the audacity to ask me to bring you a clean shirt."

"Well, I was getting a little rank." Toby sighed.

"Yeah, Toby, what's going on?"

"Who said anything is going on?"

"Why are you answering my all of my questions with more questions?"

"What makes you think I'm doing that?"

"TOBY!" CJ exclaimed loudly.

"CJ!" To by mimicked his wife's expression.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing," He confirmed more solidly.

"Toby?"

"CJ."

"Why are you lying to me?"


	4. A Consequence of Lies

Title: A Consequence of Lies

Author: Brandy B.

Summary: After failing to find the leak, CJ has another conversation with her husband.

Rating: PG-13 (for language)

Archive: Iif you tell me where so I can visit.

Feedback: I've only gotten two replies per story of this entire series, and it hasn't deterred me yet, but it would be nice.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I'm not getting paid, sue anyway, but my net worth is kind of sad

--

"Why are you lying to me, Toby?"

"I'm not, CJ."

"You are a terrible liar."

"I'm not."

"You are!"

"I can lie with the best of them."

"You lie about as well as Josh drinks."

Toby sighed, "I am a politician, CJ. I can lie."

"Not to me, you can't," CJ countered.

"You don't know what you are talking about, CJ."

"I am a lot smarter than most people give me credit for."

"I never said you weren't!"

"You said I didn't know what I was talking about. I'll have you know that I went to school for 22 years. I graduated with honors, several times!"

Toby smiled slightly, "And you are great in bed. You are no Columbo but you are great in bed."

"I'm no Columbo?"

"You didn't find the leak."

"And Columbo would've?" CJ rolled her eyes.

"You are no Columbo; that is all I am saying." Toby teased.

"Well, no offence to Peter Falk, but I hope I'm better looking."

Toby laughed, "You would prefer to be Angela Lasnsbury?"

"Being an actress would help me in my attempts to solve the mystery of the vociferous voucher?"

"How is a voucher vociferous? A person could be vociferous, maybe other animals as well, but I don't think a voucher…"

"Toby!" CJ interrupted.

"It doesn't have a mouth, CJ. A voucher doesn't have a mouth."

"Toby!"

"What?"

"You still haven't told me how being Angela Lansbury would help anything."

"She was on that show… you know "The Old Lady Detective."

"The Old Lady Detective?" CJ raised an eyebrow.

"You know the one… the one with the typewriter…"

"You think I should be J. B. Fletcher from Murder She Wrote?"

"I think it is frightening you remember her name."

CJ simply glared at him.

"What'd I do?" He whimpered.

"You called me old," she shot back with an indignant voice.

"I did no such thing."

"You did! You called me Columbo and then Angela Lansbury."

Toby sighed, "CJ, I asked you if you would rather be Angela Lansbury, I never called you Angela Lansbury; besides there is absolutely nothing wrong with her. She was great on that show."

"She's 'The Old Lady Detective', Toby! You called me old!"

"You called yourself Spartacus," Toby countered.

"Spartacus wasn't old."

"Kirk Douglass is old."

"He wasn't in 1960."

"Whatever," Toby sighed.

"There is just one more thing…" CJ's voice turned serious. "Why are you lying to me?"

"CJ," Toby sighed. He didn't enjoy lying to his wife. He hated not having anyone to talk to. He abhorred that the president had kept the American public from the truth, but it was worse keeping it from his wife.

"Toby," she knew it was a lost cause; Toby wouldn't give in. He could keep a secret as well as anybody, that was a virtue in the white house, but it didn't make their marriage any easier.

"Don't worry about it, CJ." The President had told Babish that day… the rest of the staff wouldn't be far behind.

"But I do! If it bothers you this much, I worry. It is tearing you up… and I don't even know what IT is."

Toby winced. She was completely right about the secret's effect on him. However, he couldn't say that out loud, not to CJ, not to anybody. News of the President's illness was going to get out; it was inevitable. Somebody would start a leak, or maybe they wouldn't…. how would he know? Odds were that somebody would leak the news. They had to. What was it CJ had said earlier. "No organization that large in the world could keep a secret." Could seventeen people? Not a chance. Ben Franklin once said that the only way three people could keep a secret was if two of them were dead. Toby hoped that wasn't true. He, CJ… and the state of New Jersey were keeping a secret. Maybe it was only a time before that too would end.

Not for the first time that night, or that week for that matter, Toby felt like Atlas had a pretty light load, "It's late… we should…"

CJ glared at him before interrupting, "Should what?"

"Sleep," Toby grunted.

"You are keeping something from me and you think we should curl up in bed all lovey dovey? Toby! You said big potatoes. You are gearing up for 'bit potatoes". What big potatoes are you talking about? We've lived through… everything… what could possibly be coming our way?

"CJ." Toby interrupted.

"Toby!" She shouted.

"Calm down."

"Calm down? You tell me we are about to face a scandal on the level of Watergate and you want me to calm down?"

"CJ."

"Toby, what in God's name makes you think I am going to calm down?"

"I never said…" Toby sighed, "I never said anything about Watergate." Toby had spent the last week working really hard to avoid thinking about the parallels, but it was hard. Toby closed his eyes and tried to think of something else, anything else. Failing, he slammed his head against the headboard behind him.

"You're beating yourself up, literally."

"Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? You're trying to dent my mahogany headboard and you say "don't worry about it." Of course I am worried. A couple of more moves like that and you'll be one of those people the president is so fascinated with the acalculiasts

"CJ."

"You'll be unable to complete sentences. That'll be an attractive quality for the president's communications director."

"Acalculia means an inability to deal with numbers or perform mathematic functions, CJ. It has no bearing on my ability to complete sentences. Unless of course one of the sentences is 2 +24… However, since our president is Nobel Prize winning economist, I'm pretty sure he can make the calculation on his feet. He converts to Celsius pretty quickly, I think simple math'll be a piece of Boston cream pie…" Unless of course, he is in the middle of 'an episode'.

"Toby."

"Besides…" he continued in a more somber tone, "I don't think acalculia is caused by banging one's head. While we're at it, I don't think you can just change the form of the world that way, but I'd have to look it up…"

"Toby!" CJ threw her hands up in frustration.

"Did you know that the plural of surgeon general is surgeons general, court martial is courts martial and…

"You can't say different than, only different from…"

"Well, yeah, there is that too," Toby nodded.

"You're trying to be coy."

"I have never once, in all of my life, tried to be Japanese fish…"

"COY, Toby! Not KOI!" CJ exclaimed. "You are not being funny, or distracting, or whatever he hell it is that you are trying to be."

"CJ," Toby began apologetically but didn't get the chance to finish.

"No! No! You are hiding something from me, Toby, something big. You are hiding something from your wife and also the press secretary of the United States. You, obviously, neither trust me personally or professionally, and I don't know what's worse. On some level, I need to know what the hell is going on here, and I don't. So, until you can let me in on this cloak and dagger life you've been leading, get the hell out of my house."

"CJ."

"No, I don't want to hear it. Just go."

Toby winced, "CJ."

"Are you ready to talk?"

Beyond ready, but I can't, Toby sighed. There was a plan to bring her in, to bring everybody in. "CJ… I…"

"Get out!" She rolled away from him to hide the tears in her eyes.

"Yeah." He sighed before quietly leaving the apartment.


End file.
